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Except poverty rates are dropping astronomically and are the best ever. More people than ever have access to food, water (this will unfortunately likely signifi

Except poverty rates are dropping astronomically and are the best ever. More people than ever have access to food, water (this will unfortunately likely significantly change negatively in the next decade), electricity due to investments in infrastructure and technology. People in poor countries have access to extremely cheap smart phones and unlimited information at the tips of their fingertips so the chances of upwards mobility are higher than ever in the 3rd world. Previous barriers to upwards mobility such as race, ethnicity, caste are constantly being improved. Health, especially in Africa, has significantly improved. We are at the height of society. In the developed world everyone no matter who you are has access to free food (SNAP), water, shelter(HUD, public housing, section 8), the entire world's information (library), healthcare (Medicaid- regardless of what politics keeps saying anyone making under 17k a year has FREE comprehensive Healthcare), education (free public schools for 14 years, heavily subsidized community colleges). Goods cost less than ever due to globalization, global economy is at its peak surpassing 2007. Unemployment is near an all time low. Only manufactured revolutions can occur and only in the non developed world

kiliantics 9y ago
You've just stated nearly every popular soundbyte that are typically used to justify whatever is currently happening in the global economy. I think most of them are pretty biased and misleading and I believe it's basically propaganda. > poverty rates are dropping astronomically and are the best ever I know there are papers which "prove" this but it's actually very hard to measure reliably. And the "best ever" part is almost definitely not true. We only have good data since after industrialisation and I think there are very good reasons to believe that colonialism and industrialisation made people a lot poorer in the first place, which they might lately be finally slightly recovering from. Either way, more people being one notch above starvation and abject poverty is not really a great success. I don't know how fast the definition of poverty changes. Is it fast enough to keep up with rising costs of living? > People in poor countries have access to extremely cheap smart phones and unlimited information at the tips of their fingertips so the chances of upwards mobility are higher than ever in the 3rd world. If you think that being able to read some tweets can get you out of poverty, you really don't get how poverty works. The people in these places need ownership over the value of their work. Most investment and therefore ownership in the developing world is not in the hands of the global poor, that's why they're poor. And we want them to stay poor because it allows us to extract the 80% of the wealth, as Oxfam has estimated. Just look at how much money goes out of Africa versus how much is going in: http://blogs.ubc.ca/grsj102wm/files/2016/11/maxresdefault.jpg http://blogs.ubc.ca/grsj102wm/files/2016/11/maxresdefault.jp... Clearly, people from the first world are stealing massive amounts of the profit from local labour and resources. They do this via privatised ownership, which is the descendant of colonialism and was built into the predatory aid and lending policies of institutions like the world bank and IMF. > Previous barriers to upwards mobility such as race, ethnicity, caste are constantly being improved. There are plenty of regions where this is just not true, e.g. in parts of the Middle East. The economic crises people are facing have resulted in some groups doubling down on divisive beliefs. > In the developed world everyone no matter who you are has access to free food (SNAP), water, shelter... You must never have been in the kinds of circumstances where you actually had to rely on these programmes to live or you would never be so impressed with them. > Only manufactured revolutions can occur This is the one thing you are probably right about but I believe it's because so many people buy into this fabricated narrative of progress. We have also been stripped of more power relative to our rulers than ever and are completely alienated from each other with no way to successfully organise a mass movement with which to revolt.

kiliantics 9y ago

You've just stated nearly every popular soundbyte that are typically used to justify whatever is currently happening in the global economy. I think most of them are pretty biased and misleading and I believe it's basically propaganda. > poverty rates are dropping astronomically and are the best ever I know there are papers which "prove" this but it's actually very hard to measure reliably. And the "best ever" part is almost definitely not true. We only have good data since after industrialisation and I think there are very good reasons to believe that colonialism and industrialisation made people a lot poorer in the first place, which they might lately be finally slightly recovering from. Either way, more people being one notch above starvation and abject poverty is not really a great success. I don't know how fast the definition of poverty changes. Is it fast enough to keep up with rising costs of living? > People in poor countries have access to extremely cheap smart phones and unlimited information at the tips of their fingertips so the chances of upwards mobility are higher than ever in the 3rd world. If you think that being able to read some tweets can get you out of poverty, you really don't get how poverty works. The people in these places need ownership over the value of their work. Most investment and therefore ownership in the developing world is not in the hands of the global poor, that's why they're poor. And we want them to stay poor because it allows us to extract the 80% of the wealth, as Oxfam has estimated. Just look at how much money goes out of Africa versus how much is going in: http://blogs.ubc.ca/grsj102wm/files/2016/11/maxresdefault.jpg http://blogs.ubc.ca/grsj102wm/files/2016/11/maxresdefault.jp... Clearly, people from the first world are stealing massive amounts of the profit from local labour and resources. They do this via privatised ownership, which is the descendant of colonialism and was built into the predatory aid and lending policies of institutions like the world bank and IMF. > Previous barriers to upwards mobility such as race, ethnicity, caste are constantly being improved. There are plenty of regions where this is just not true, e.g. in parts of the Middle East. The economic crises people are facing have resulted in some groups doubling down on divisive beliefs. > In the developed world everyone no matter who you are has access to free food (SNAP), water, shelter... You must never have been in the kinds of circumstances where you actually had to rely on these programmes to live or you would never be so impressed with them. > Only manufactured revolutions can occur This is the one thing you are probably right about but I believe it's because so many people buy into this fabricated narrative of progress. We have also been stripped of more power relative to our rulers than ever and are completely alienated from each other with no way to successfully organise a mass movement with which to revolt.